CWAO Radio
Weekly Updates
Want to know what The Casual Workers Advice Office has been up to?
Then listen to Buwa Basebetsi Weekly Updates covering topics from CCMA, strike action, CWAO campaigns and Workers Rights.
25 November 2024
Buwa Basebetsi Updates: End of Mr Sweet strike
Premier FMCG's chief executive officer, Kobus Gertenbach, earns R18.8 million per year in salaries and bonuses. Yet workers at Mister Sweet are paid different amounts on a ‘case by case basis’ – there’s no basic wage, and some earn as little as R6000 per month, even after ten years in the employ of the company.
The workers, members of the Simunye Workers’ Forum trade union, calculated that a living wage would be R19 500 per month, and decided to strike for this. This was always going to be a tough demand to win, especially at a company which sees no need to negotiate wage increases with unions, instead getting agreement from a tiny minority union to accept an inflation adjustment and then imposing this on the majority of workers.
However, the R19 500 living wage demand was reasonable and affordable for Mister Sweet. It also mattered in the South African context.
22 November 2024
Buwa Basebetsi Updates: Labour Rights Week
The aim of Labour Rights Week is to increase human rights defenders’ knowledge and skills so that they:
15 November 2024
Weekly Update: Labour Law Amendment Bill
On the 9th of October 2024, the Department of Employment & Labour issued a press statement where they shared their readiness of their inspectors to be deployed to enforce another “wave” of labour law amendments.
Muzi Mzoyi sat down with John Appolis of the Casual Workers Advice Office, who broke down the new Amendments, while explaining what they mean for the reality of workers.
25 October 2024
Weekly Update: Mr Sweet Protest - Two months into strike
On the 19th of August Workers at Mister Sweet went on strike demanding a R19000 basic salary as their main bone of content, but there are more issues than what meets the eye as we previously reported. There are issues with overtime pay treatment of female workers, pay disparities and provident fund that is not growing to mention just few. Nqebethu, a member of the strike committee tells us about their experience up to here..
The Strike Barometer is produced independently, not from government numbers, but from information supplied by workers and unions. You can log on here whenever you like to get the latest strike information: https://statistics.cwao.org.za/
If you know of any strikes that we have not recorded on the Barometer, please contact us on 082 812 1934.
16 October 2024
Weekly Update: Mr Sweet Protest
This week marks the 8th week since the start of Mister Sweet strike. On the 19th of August Workers at Mister Sweet went on strike demanding a R19000 basic salary as their main bone of content, but there are more issues than what meets the eye as we previously reported. There are issues with overtime pay treatment of female workers, pay disparities and provident fund that is not growing to mention just few.
11 October 2024
Weekly Update: Bosses at ZGG
This week, we expose the bosses at ZGG, a vegetable and flower farm west of Joburg, which has banned 37 workers from other countries from the workplace. The ZGG bosses say they will fire the workers unless they come up with documents within two weeks - despite the fact that many of the workers have been working on the farm for 10 years…
26 September 2024
Weekly Update: Mr Sweet Protest - Injured Workers
The SWF has been informed that several casual workers have been seriously injured over the past week in the Mister Sweet factory after Mister Sweet bosses put pressure on them to handle dangerous and unfamiliar machinery.
Mister Sweet has also allegedly breached s17 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act by continuing to keep the factory running using untrained casual workers while failing to make sure that they have health and safety officers.
Last week a casual worker who had no experience or training was using the cutter. It was not moving sweets and because the worker had not been trained on what to do, he tried to push the sweets under the cutter and that is how his finger was cut off, workers say.
Workers also report that casuals are operating the cooker, which can be dangerous, without training.
20 September 2024
Weekly Update: The Mister Sweet strike is in its fourth week.
The Mister Sweet strike is in its fourth week and is taking its toll on striking workers. From the 19th of August workers have been demanding R19 500 as their basic salary, but their employer is sticking to their 7% increase across the board. This is despite Mister Sweet being owned by Premier FMCG which last year declared just over a 23% increase in revenue.
13 September 2024
Weekly Update: Mr Sweet Protest - Labour Court victory
The Simunye Workers Forum union has defeated Mister Sweet's attempts to bring an interdict against the strike at its factory in Johannesburg which began on 19 August.
Johannesburg Labour Court judge J Daniels recently ruled that the employer was unable to show any link between the alleged violence they complained of and the strikers. Therefore the company was not entitled to interdict the strike or the strikers.
Judge Daniels also acknowledged that the strike was a lawful and protected strike.
06 September 2024
Weekly Update: Mr Sweet Protest - Actions of Solidarity
24 August 2024
Weekly Update: On the picket line with striking workers from Mister Sweet
We bring you the latest developments on the current protest taking place at Mr Sweet in Wadeville.
We hear directly from the workers on the ground, and get an overview on the reasons behind the strike.
14 August 2024
Weekly Update: An Analysis of Asylum Seekers
Two people from Diepsloot, Gauteng speak out.
Buwa Basebetsi has carried out this analysis with the help of an article by Kimberly Mutandiro published in GroundUp
12 August 2024
Weekly Update: Olympic Games 2024
In this episode of Buwa Basebetsi Updates we look at the Olympics Games, focusing on Israel's participation. We carry out this analysis with the help of an article by Hassan Lorgat published in the Media Review Network website.
12 August 2024
Weekly Update: Strike Barometer
In this episode of Buwa Basebetsi Updates we look at the results of the CWAO's online Strike Barometer.
The Strike Barometer is produced independently, not from government numbers, but from information supplied by workers and unions. You can log on here whenever you like to get the latest strike information: https://statistics.cwao.org.za/
If you know of any strikes that we have not recorded on the Barometer, please contact us on 082 812 1934.
11 July 2024
Weekly Update: School Registration Assistance
The Casual Workers Advice Office, Simunye Workers Forum and Simunye Women Workers Forum know the challenges community members face in day-to-day life and we are aware that things are difficult economically for the masses. We therefore invite parents/guardians whose children will be attending Grade 1 and Grade 8 in 2025 to use the CWAO computer centre in Germiston to register their children's applications online.